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When he was 5 years old, Andrew Shaffer wrote a 5 page sequel to Ghostbusters in 1985. [1] In high school, Shaffer thought he was going to be in a band. [2] For the longest time, he wanted to write a version of Tobin's Spirit Guide. After writing a Sharknado tie-in book for Penguin Random House, Shaffer was asked if there was anything else he wanted to write. He immediately mentioned Tobin's Spirit Guide but his editor turned him down citing Ghostbusters was a dead franchise and the 30th anniversary had already passed. About a year later, Shaffer got a call from his editor about doing a Ghostbusters tie-in. Shaffer was informed someone else was working on a Tobin's Spirit Guide and the movie was a reboot. [3][4] Shaffer got a draft of the screenplay and mocked up a proposal. It was greenlit and Shaffer was asked to write some example sections. He wrote some chapters and sent them. A couple weeks later, Shaffer got notes from Paul Feig and Katie Dippold explaining what "Ghosts From Our Past" was about and how it differed from Tobin's Spirit Guide. Shaffer looked at stacks of books on the paranormal and science in an attempt to find a plausible way to bridge them together for the book. [5][6][7] He also had to expand a page or so about Erin and Abby's childhood into under 100 pages. At first, he was told Leslie Jones was playing Abby and Melissa McCarthy was playing Patty. He didn't get the memo they switched roles until later. He threw in some nods to Feig's childhood in Michigan to pander to but Shaffer got notes back on what he got wrong. [8][9][10] For Abby and Erin's college years, Shaffer threw in some of his experiences like a professor who threw his $200 textbook away after flipping through it. [11]

Shaffer read one of John Hodgeman's books while he was writing Ghosts From Our Past. [13]

On page 7 of Ghostbusters 101 #1, in panel 2, there is a non-canon reference to Andrew Shaffer on the book on top of the stack of books. The book he is the author of is "How to Create Cults and Influence People", a nod to "How to Make Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

↑The Crossrip Podcast 6/26/16 "#227 - Andrew Shaffer/"Ghosts From Our Past" and Erik Burnham "Tobin's Spirit Guide" - June 27, 2016" 1:24:18-1:25:54Andrew Shaffer says: "So that was my first idea and that was a long gestating idea. I was like, 'If I ever get a chance to do something, I was like we need to bring this to life. We need to bring this to life.' And I wrote a book, How to Survive a Sharknado made for Penguin Random House and it was about how to survive a Sharknado and 39 other--other Sy Fi Channel movie monsters and it was actually an in-world book that appeared onscreen in Sharknado 2. It was written by Tara Reid's character, April Wexler. So I was like I had a little bit of experience doing a tie-in in-world book and my editor at Penguin Random House asked if there was anything else you to work on and I said Ghostbusters. He said well, Ghostbusters is dead. Y'know, it's a dead franchise. You probably heard this a million times before but you know without a new movie, without an anniversary date - we just passed the anniversary date 30 years without any of this stuff coming out it's dead and then about a year later he gives me a call and says, 'Hey, they're actually doing this uh new movie, are you interested?' I was absolutely. I want to do Tobin's Spirit Guide. Let's do it. And then it was like well, someone else is actually doing Tobin's Spirit Guide and the new movie's reboot. And so immediately, I go uhhh..."

↑The Crossrip Podcast 6/26/16 "#227 - Andrew Shaffer/"Ghosts From Our Past" and Erik Burnham "Tobin's Spirit Guide" - June 27, 2016" 1:28:02-1:29:26Andrew Shaffer says: "Just the screenplay at first and then I did a sort of mock up of, y'know, proposal of what I would do with this, what I would do with this book and sent it in. He said great let's do this and just write some more examples. A couple sample chapters and then as soon as I turned in those sample chapters and the rest of the proposal, we got notes a couple weeks later back from Paul Feig and Katie Dippold and here's what we--the direction--we want to go in but uh we need to change -- my idea at first was to do more along the lines of a Tobin's Spirit Guide and they're like 'No, this is what the book is in the world and they're not really paranormal investigators, start off as scientists' So it took a little bit of a different angle my take was so they were like okay, 'Let's work this back up. And really work the science and physics theme throughout the book. So it really is looking at the, y'know, this new world throught these characters, Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates' eyes. And I really had to get in there."